The appointment of Gladys Berejiklian as Premier of NSW provides a unique opportunity to address community opposition to forced council amalgamations in metropolitan areas by applying an innovative Joint Regional Authority (JRA) model developed by the City of Ryde Council.
Premier Berejiklian appears to have to either back-peddle on the Government’s program of council amalgamations or to continue pushing on with unpopular reforms facing numerous legal challenges. But there is a fully-developed alternative that could achieve broad agreement between all parties and ‘save face’ for the NSW Government.
That alternative is a Joint Regional Authority – an idea I first proposed as the Mayor of the City of Ryde in 2014 as an alternative to an original proposal to carve up and destroy Ryde and amalgamate six councils across the Lower North Shore and inner North West of Sydney. Essentially, the model maintains councils as independent entities but has proper binding regulatory frameworks that work to establish centres of excellence, commonality and efficiencies across the multiple services offered by councils. It also allows for region-based planning for community facilities and infrastructure.
Ryde, Hunters Hill and Lane Cove took up the challenge to develop a JRA model. Ryde staff along with those from Lane Cove and Hunters Hill put together the model with significant input from experts and academics in local government. Detailed high-level testing by leading financial consultants was also conducted to show the substantial savings and efficiencies that could be achieved with a JRA without amalgamating the councils.
Essentially, forced council amalgamations are not needed to bring about savings and regional coordination. That can be achieved by a JRA model specific to metropolitan councils. Most importantly, Councils can keep their local identity and local representation in place to serve the specific needs of their community.
Unfortunately, the JRA model was not given proper consideration by the Government’s independent review process in the State’s march towards forcing council amalgamations.
Today however, the new Premier Gladys Berejiklian only needs to look to the work done in her own backyard – the City of Ryde where she grew up.
The JRA will work. It is a much better alternative to forced council amalgamations in metropolitan Sydney and it can provide economic benefits and service efficiencies, and a more regional outlook. Most importantly however, it achieves all of this by keeping local councils local.
Rural and regional councils will not be forcibly amalgamated now, according the Liberal’s Coalition partners – the Nationals. Non-metropolitan areas also have their Joint Organisations as applicable.
The city also deserves an alternative – the JRA is it!!
